Analyzing Gender Diversity's Impact on Marks & Spencer's Performance

This research report examines the impact of gender diversity on employee turnover and overall performance within Marks and Spencer. It explores competing predictions regarding the relationship between gender diversity and organizational performance, including positive linear, negative linear, and U-linear curvilinear predictions. The report also considers how industry type moderates the effects of gender diversity on organizational structure and individual performance. The research methodology includes a discussion of research philosophy (positivism), research approach (deductive), and data collection methods (secondary data analysis). Findings from secondary data analysis are presented, and the report concludes with recommendations and limitations of the study. The report uses a critical literature review to build a theoretical framework for understanding the complex relationship between gender diversity, employee turnover, and organizational performance at Marks and Spencer.

Running head: IMPACT OF GENDER DIVERSITY
Assignment 2: Impact of Gender Diversity on Employee Turnover and Overall
Performance of the Marks and Spencer
Name of the student:
Name of the university:

1Impact of Gender DiversityIMPACT OF GENDER DIVERSITY
Executive summary
This research report reflects the impact of gender diversity in employee turnover and the
performance of Marks and Spencer. The impact of gender diversity can either be positive or
negative; these are elaborated in this research report. In addition to this, in order to conduct the
study necessary research methodology in terms of research philosophy, approach, data collection
method and the limitations that the researcher has faced during the research work are also
illustrated in this report.

2Impact of Gender DiversityIMPACT OF GENDER DIVERSITY
Table of Contents
1. Introduction..................................................................................................................................2
1.1 Aim........................................................................................................................................2
1.2 Objectives..............................................................................................................................2
1.3 Research questions.................................................................................................................3
1.4 Hypothesis.............................................................................................................................3
2. Critical literature review..............................................................................................................3
3. A detailed presentation of project methodology..........................................................................6
3.1 Research philosophy..............................................................................................................6
3.2 Research approach.................................................................................................................6
3.3 Data collection method..........................................................................................................7
3.4 Ethical consideration:............................................................................................................8
3.5 Research design.....................................................................................................................8
4. Findings from secondary data analysis........................................................................................9
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................10
Recommendations..........................................................................................................................10
Limitations.....................................................................................................................................11
References......................................................................................................................................13

3Impact of Gender DiversityIMPACT OF GENDER DIVERSITY
1. Introduction
This research report depicts the impact of the gender diversity or variation on the
organizational performance and overall employee turnover. There are three different competing
predictions for the Marks and Spencer gender diversity performance relationship in terms of
positive linear prediction, negative linear prediction and U linear curvilinear prediction. Not only
this, but also how the moderating type of industry is affecting the organizational structure and the
individual performance are also elaborated in this research report.
Marks and Spencer is a service type industry thus, it is the responsibility of the company
to consider all necessary actions so that it can met the objectives. It has been found that due to
gender diversity in the company the rate of employee turnover and performance of the company
is increasing simultaneously. In order to conduct the study an accurate research methodology is
also considered in this research report.
1.1 Aim
The aim of the research report is to determine the impact of gender diversity on
employee’s turnover and overall performance of the employees in Marks and Spencer. It has
been found that, this company fails to manage proper balance between the men and women.
Thus, the employees are unable to provide an accurate work ambiance and work experience to
the employees.

4Impact of Gender DiversityIMPACT OF GENDER DIVERSITY
1.2 Objectives
 To identify the ratio of the male and female employees working in Marks and
Spencer
 To collect and analyze information those have been gathered from different
literature regarding employee turnover in Marks and Spencer
 To critically analyze the impact of gender diversity in performance of the Marks
and Spencer
1.3 Research questions
 What are the major differences between the number of male and female for the
service type business organization named as Marks and Spencer?
 Can gender diversity increase and decrease the rate of employee turnover and
performance of the overall company?
1.4 Hypothesis
H0: Gender Diversity impacts the performance and employee turnover in Marks and
Spencer.
H1: Gender Diversity does not impact the performance and employee turnover in Marks
and Spencer.
2. Critical literature review
According to Vasilescu et al., (2015), the workforce gender diversity is increasing in all
over the world day by day. From secondary survey it has been found that, in United States the
women representation act as civilian labors force is reaches to 22.9 Million in the year of 1954.

5Impact of Gender DiversityIMPACT OF GENDER DIVERSITY
Both the focus of the researchers and the practitioners are turned towards the continuous
enhancement of the workforce gender diversity. The workforce composition of genders in Marks
and Spencer affects the group, individuals and at the same time the performance of the
individuals.
According to Cloutier, Felusiak, Hill and Pemberton-Jones, (2015) at early state of 1990
the practitioners and scholar all were working on effects of the workforce diversity on the
performance of the employees. The gender diversity can act as a competitive advantage source
for any business (Schwab et al., 2016). Though, from different theories it is also defined that this
may lead the business either towards positive outcome or towards negative outcome.
It is defined that the resource based view of Marks and Spencer suggests a diversity
performance relationship which is negative in nature on the other had the social identity theory
of the business organization shows the diversity performance theory as a positive one (Terjesen,
Couto & Francisco, 2016). Though the topic of gender diversity whether it is beneficial or not is
still under serious controversy. From the mixed evidence it is found that, the gender diversity is
focused on competing prediction. Whenever, the prior knowledge leads any business
organization towards at least two or more reasonable explanation the competing prediction
around to be very much useful.
The moderating affect of the industrial context, may help the researcher to explain the
inconsistency in the past research for achieving more precious as well as specific understanding
of the primary level of gender diversity relationship of the performance (Ali, 2016). From the
resource based view of an organization the diversity performance relationship can be easily
derived. It is also proposed that, the organizational diversity is a source that is intangible as well

6Impact of Gender DiversityIMPACT OF GENDER DIVERSITY
as socially complex resource which can again provide the business organization a sustainable
competitive advantage (Walton, Murphy & Ryan, 2015). The social and tangibly complex
resources are derived from the gender diversity in the business organization together with
creativity, market insights, innovation as well as problem solving capability.
The different experiences of the men and women can also provide high insights in
various requirements of the male female consumers. The overall creativity as well as innovation
can be enhanced accordingly with the help of gender diversity as it combines the skills and
perspectives of different people altogether. High quality of decisions can be made with the help
of gender diverse workforce because the men and women are able to bring various perspectives
that may lead to different alternatives. From different angles these varied alternatives are then
evaluated (Lu et al., 2015). From the detail study of the resource it has been found that, that the
competitive advantages can generate positive relationship among the organizational gender
diversity and employee performance.
Whenever, the gender diversity maximized the organizational performance will deliver
the biggest for the company. Thus it can be said that, the organizational gender diversity act as a
positive influence. In addition to this, based on the negative linear the gender diversity
performance relationship within an organization is based on self categorization as well as social
identify theories. The employee categorization are generally done based on certain visible
variation in terms of gender, age etc. Thus, the gender divertive workforce can generate
psychological groups also that is comprises of female group members and male group of
members (Barak, Findler & Wind, 2016). On the other hand the gender diversity can produce
also negative behavior like improper communication among the working team members,
stereotype roles expected, consistency lack etc. Though the empirical research always support

7Impact of Gender DiversityIMPACT OF GENDER DIVERSITY
the theory which implies that the gender diversity can generate negative dynamics those re
predicted by the self categorization as well social identity theories.
3. A detailed presentation of project methodology
In order to ideate and analyze the impact of gender diversity in performance and
increasing rate of employee turnover in Marks and Spencer, it is necessary for the researcher to
create proper research methodology while conducting the research work. For this research work
all the measures are considered including research philosophy, design, approach, data collection
method data collection by the researcher (Boehm, Kunze & Bruch, 2014). At the organizational
level the impact of the gender diversity can either be high or may be low one.
3.1 Research philosophy
Three different types research philosophy are there such as positivism, interpretivism and
realism. Based on the research background the moist suitable research philosophy is required to
be chosen by the researcher (Nakagawa & Schreiber, 2014). For this particular topic the
researcher is needed to select the positivism research philosophy. It will help the researcher to
retrieve all the hidden facts associated to the Marks and Spencer employee turnover and
performance. With this philosophy the research will be able to do scientific analysis on the
research topic.
3.2 Research approach
After deeply analyzing the research topic the researcher should select the most suitable
research approach (Lewis, 2015). There are two different types of research approaches are there
such as inductive and deductive. After analyzing the research topic it has been found that for this
particular topic the researcher should select the deductive research approach. The deductive

8Impact of Gender DiversityIMPACT OF GENDER DIVERSITY
research approach will help the researcher to model the research domain much scientifically and
professionally (Vaioleti, 2016). All the research gaps will be minimized with the implementation
of this particular research approach. As the inductive research work deals with real time
scientific data. It is expected that, with the successful application of the research approach all the
issues of Marks and Spencer regarding the employee turnover and performance issues due to
gender divergence can be easily gathered.
3.3 Data collection method
Basically there are two types of data collection methods are available and based on the
research topic the researcher is required to choose the most suitable data collection method. The
primary data collection method is conducted through survey and questionnaires (Smith, 2015). It
is defined that, for the successful primary data collection method the researchers are required to
design a survey questionnaire. The participants of the survey are also needed to be selected by
the researcher. On the other hand for the secondary data analysis the researcher are required to
choose all necessary journals and books and other secondary resources at the same time (Choy,
2014). It is the role of the researcher to choose that which data collection method she or he is
going to choose. Sometimes, mixed data collection methods are also selected by the researchers
to conduct the research work successfully.
However, in order to understand and evaluate the impact of gender diverse on employee
turnover and performance of the Marks and Spencer (Dumay & Cai, 2015). The demand from
the consumer’s end and satisfaction of the employees who are working for Marks and Spencer
can be measured with the successful implementation of the research report. With the help of the
secondary sources the issues that the company is facing in their service and other services can be

9Impact of Gender DiversityIMPACT OF GENDER DIVERSITY
easily identified. Based on the identification proper the company will be able to take proper
actions for resolving the issues.
There are two different types of data are there such as qualitative and quantitative dat.
The qualitative data are all about the data hose are qualitative in nature and on the other that the
quantitative data are the quantity of the total data those have been collected from the secondary
resource (Lushey & Munro, 2015). For this particular research work the researcher needs to
collect both the qualitative and quantitative data simultaneously. The collected quantitative data
help the business organization to resolve the issues with employee turnover and performance of
the organization in terms of service and productivity all together.
3.4 Ethical consideration:
Ethical consideration is another important aspect that has to be chosen for conducting the
research work. The researcher should make sure that none of the unethical actions are taking
place in the Marks and Spencer Company (McCusker & Gunaydin, 2015). The journals, books
and the blogs content those are chosen for conducting the research work are required to be
absolutely valid and verified accordingly.
The data those are going to be collected from the different resources must not be shared
with any outsider (Wildemuth, 2016). The information must not be disclosed in front of any third
party. The standard rules are regulations are required to be considered by the researchers while
collecting data from the journals and blogs. The researchers should maintain proper honesty
while producing the research work.

10Impact of Gender DiversityIMPACT OF GENDER DIVERSITY
3.5 Research design
There are three different types of research design methods available such as descriptive,
exploratory and explanatory. Based on the research topic and research details the researcher is
required to select the most suitable research design. With the help of the accurate research design
the research gaps and the hidden facts can be easily identified. If the issues are identified
properly then the company will be able to take all necessary actions those are important to
resolve the issues. For this topic, the descriptive research design is needed to be selected by the
researcher (Bilau, Witt & Lill, 2018). It will help the researcher to meet the research objective
much easily. The nature of the research problem and the possible steps those may be take for
resolving the issues of the gender diversity in Marks and Spencer by incorporating necessary
actions and professional business strategies.
4. Findings from secondary data analysis
It has been found that with the successful conduction of the research work the researcher
will be able to understand the details of impact of gender diversity in employee turnover and
performance of Marks and Spencer (Bilau, Witt & Lill, 2018). Under the light of the skill and the
shortage it is determined that high rate of employee turnover are taking place in different
business organizations. For instance, in the financial year between 2012 and 2014 the total rate
of employee turnover in Australia was around 9%. The turnovers of the employees are the
number of employees who are departing their companies where they were working along wise
(Kao et al., 2016). The turnover of the employees generates high non financial and financial
organizational cost.

11Impact of Gender DiversityIMPACT OF GENDER DIVERSITY
Form the detail of the secondary analysis it is also found that, most of the turnover
research work are focused on the individual’s roe in the business organization. From the
secondary analysis it is also determined that, there are many reasons for which the rate of the
employee turnover in Marks and Spencer is increasing. On the other hand the, the turnover also
negatively impacts the performance in terms of service and delivery of products in Marks and
Spencer (Vamsi Krishna Jasti & Kodali, 2014). The secondary data analysis also shows that from
the context of Marks and Spencer can either strengthen or even weaken for the gender diversity
effects.
Conclusion
From the overall discussion it can be concluded that due to the gender diversity and
frequent discrimination among the employees both the female and male the rte of the employee
turnover in Marks and Spencer is increasing every day. Due to the absence of a supportive work
ambiance the company is keep on facing serious commercial drawback. In order to conduct this
research work on the identified topic different issues are faced by the researcher those are
elaborated the research limitations are also illustrated in this section. All the predictions are
tested using proper different testing mechanism. It has been found that with the help of the
finding the industry context can be strengthening and the gender diversity associated issues can
be minimized effectively.